Above the Fold: Top stories of the day
1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced a "historic peace pact" with one section of Nagaland militants, getting them to climb down on a demand for Greater Nagaland and create a route for the decommissioning of arms.
2. The government appears set to roll back amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, returning it to the 2013 text that includes a consent clause among other things.
3. It appears that the government is set to create the post of an ombudsdman for porn, to regulate content on the internet, in the aftermath of an attempt to disable 857 allegedly porn sites over child porn concerns.
The Big Story: Empty House
The Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, may have genuinely been attempting to solve the all-too-serious problem of obstructionism in the Parliament. After days of incessant disruptions and occasionally unruly behaviour from the Congress Members of Parliament, Mahajan decided to suspend 25 of them for five days. Unfortunately, by doing it just when partisanship is at its highest, Mahajan has not only made the suspension instrument seem politically motivated and draconian, she has also helped a partly isolated Congress gather much support from around it.
Following the suspension, the Congress decided to boycott Parliament altogether for the next five days. And then the party got to work convincing others to do the same, and the results suggests a higher level of Opposition unity than one would normally give the Congress credit for: the Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Muslim League and the Aam Aadmi Party have all decided to boycott as well. Only the Uttar Pradesh parties are outliers.
These parties are of course now going to insist that any suspension attempts based on a diktat from the Speaker is a partisan move, meaning a genuine instrument that has been used in credible ways, such as after the unleashing of a pepper spray on the floor, will get a political taint. And that means the question of Parliamentary reform, trying to figure out a way to make our legislature more effective, is likely to remain an academic discussion.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Rajnath Singh has shown willingness to end Parliament logjam – but will Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley agree? Meanwhile, the opposition has openly accused Sumitra Mahajan of partisanship with nine parties deciding to join the Congress in boycotting Lok Sabha proceedings for the next five days.
To get Scroll's Daily Fix, a compendium of all you need to know for the day (and a little more) on your phone, download our Android app.
Politicking & Policying
1. The Finance Ministry and the central bank have come to an agreement on the composition of the proposed Monetary Policy Committee, reports Economic Times based on an unnamed source, ending the feuding over the Reserve Bank of India's independence in the media over the last few days.
2. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj insisted that she had not requested or made a recommendation to authorities of the United Kingdom to give travel papers to money laundering accused Lalit Modi, although her speech was lost in the din of Parliament.
3. A reporter who has written about the alleged extortion of Trinamool Congress-linked operators was reported missing after he set out to deliver a speech on the backlash he has been facing.
4. Chennai hospitality outlets are starting to get jittery as the call for prohibition in the state is getting stronger.
Scroll Video
Watch drone footage of Manipur floods which locals are calling the worst in two centuries.
Punditry
1. We must rethink the architecture of our educational institutions to properly prepare them for the youth, writes Pulapre Balakrishnan in the Hindu.
2. Siddhartha Mishra at the NewsMinute writes on the curious case of an article disappearing from Firstpost, which happened to be critical of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
3. Narendra Modi is losing the surplus legitimacy he gained in the elections, and only upcoming polls in ihar offer a way out, writes Ashutosh Varshney in the Indian Express.
Don't Miss
Vidya Krishnan and Mandakini Gahlot report on the South African attempt to detect every case of tuberculosis, while India's approach sees millions slipping through the cracks.
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1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced a "historic peace pact" with one section of Nagaland militants, getting them to climb down on a demand for Greater Nagaland and create a route for the decommissioning of arms.
2. The government appears set to roll back amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, returning it to the 2013 text that includes a consent clause among other things.
3. It appears that the government is set to create the post of an ombudsdman for porn, to regulate content on the internet, in the aftermath of an attempt to disable 857 allegedly porn sites over child porn concerns.
The Big Story: Empty House
The Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, may have genuinely been attempting to solve the all-too-serious problem of obstructionism in the Parliament. After days of incessant disruptions and occasionally unruly behaviour from the Congress Members of Parliament, Mahajan decided to suspend 25 of them for five days. Unfortunately, by doing it just when partisanship is at its highest, Mahajan has not only made the suspension instrument seem politically motivated and draconian, she has also helped a partly isolated Congress gather much support from around it.
Following the suspension, the Congress decided to boycott Parliament altogether for the next five days. And then the party got to work convincing others to do the same, and the results suggests a higher level of Opposition unity than one would normally give the Congress credit for: the Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Muslim League and the Aam Aadmi Party have all decided to boycott as well. Only the Uttar Pradesh parties are outliers.
These parties are of course now going to insist that any suspension attempts based on a diktat from the Speaker is a partisan move, meaning a genuine instrument that has been used in credible ways, such as after the unleashing of a pepper spray on the floor, will get a political taint. And that means the question of Parliamentary reform, trying to figure out a way to make our legislature more effective, is likely to remain an academic discussion.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's biggest story
Rajnath Singh has shown willingness to end Parliament logjam – but will Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley agree? Meanwhile, the opposition has openly accused Sumitra Mahajan of partisanship with nine parties deciding to join the Congress in boycotting Lok Sabha proceedings for the next five days.
To get Scroll's Daily Fix, a compendium of all you need to know for the day (and a little more) on your phone, download our Android app.
Politicking & Policying
1. The Finance Ministry and the central bank have come to an agreement on the composition of the proposed Monetary Policy Committee, reports Economic Times based on an unnamed source, ending the feuding over the Reserve Bank of India's independence in the media over the last few days.
2. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj insisted that she had not requested or made a recommendation to authorities of the United Kingdom to give travel papers to money laundering accused Lalit Modi, although her speech was lost in the din of Parliament.
3. A reporter who has written about the alleged extortion of Trinamool Congress-linked operators was reported missing after he set out to deliver a speech on the backlash he has been facing.
4. Chennai hospitality outlets are starting to get jittery as the call for prohibition in the state is getting stronger.
Scroll Video
Watch drone footage of Manipur floods which locals are calling the worst in two centuries.
Punditry
1. We must rethink the architecture of our educational institutions to properly prepare them for the youth, writes Pulapre Balakrishnan in the Hindu.
2. Siddhartha Mishra at the NewsMinute writes on the curious case of an article disappearing from Firstpost, which happened to be critical of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
3. Narendra Modi is losing the surplus legitimacy he gained in the elections, and only upcoming polls in ihar offer a way out, writes Ashutosh Varshney in the Indian Express.
Don't Miss
Vidya Krishnan and Mandakini Gahlot report on the South African attempt to detect every case of tuberculosis, while India's approach sees millions slipping through the cracks.
According to data presented by the government in the Lok Sabha last month, India had 2.6 million cases of tuberculosis as per the latest count and ranks 14th among 22 high TB burden countries. Further, an estimated 61,000 MDR-TB cases have been reported.
But the numbers could be higher. A leaked report by the Joint Monitoring Mission of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme which assessed India's National Tuberculosis policy has noted that nearly a million people living with tuberculosis in the country have either gone undiagnosed or unreported.